Women and Citizenship in Later Medieval York

Citizenship for women in later medieval towns was largely connected to their opportunities to develop retail businesses. While there was not always a formal bar on women becoming citizens, opportunities were limited by customary practices, particularly those that gave preference to men as husbands, as heads of households and as the holders of political office. The increasing association between these kinds of private and public male authority progressively restricted official female entrepreneurship to the private sphere. ¹ Thus most, but not all, women citizens were typically widows, were excluded from public office and were restricted to the temporary economic benefits and financial obligations of citizenship until they remarried or were replaced by an adult son.